On February 25, 2011, the club was founded by Smart Hero International Trading Limited (骏豪投资有限公司), Xiamen Dongyuhang Import & Export Co., Ltd. (厦门东屿行进出口有限公司), Xiamen City HS Sheng Industrial Co., Ltd. (厦门协晟工贸有限公司), and Xiamen City Shengxin Metal Products Co., Ltd. (厦门金盛鑫金属制),[1][2] on the basis of local amateur club Xiamen Dongyuhang, which just won the runners-up spot of the China Amateur Football League last year, as Fujian Smart Hero F.C. (Chinese: 福建骏豪足球俱乐部). Within their debut season, they played in the China League Two division within the 2011 league season, where their home uniforms were yellow tops and black shorts. Fujian, in their first season, would win promotion to the 2012 China League One division via the League One relegation play-off in which Fujian beat Guizhou Zhicheng 6–5 in a penalty shootout.[3]
In the 2012 China League One campaign, Xu Hui was appointed as manager and he would lead the club to a third-place finish. This saw Yongchang Real Estate (Chinese: 永昌地产集团) becoming interested in the team and they bought 70% shares of the club, which officially went through on January 18, 2013.[4] The club moved to Hebei Province's capital city Shijiazhuang into the Yutong International Sports Center. They changed the club's colors to blue and the team's name into Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao F.C. (Chinese: 石家庄永昌骏豪足球俱乐部). On December 27, 2013, Yongchang Real Estate bought the remaining 30% shares of the club and on February 24, 2014, Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao F.C. changed their name to Shijiazhuang Yongchang F.C.(Chinese: 石家庄永昌足球俱乐部).[5][6] In the 2014 league season, Shijiazhuang Yongchang won promotion to the top tier for the first time in their history when they came runners-up within their division. The club's first act within the top flight was to change their English name to Shijiazhuang Ever Bright F.C. (while their Chinese name still remained as 石家庄永昌) in January 2015.
The club's debut season within the top tier saw the club's manager Yasen Petrov guiding the team to seventh in the league and safely away from relegation at the end of the 2015 league season.[7] The following campaign would prove to be considerably more difficult and Yasen Petrov was relieved of his position on 14 July 2016, and replaced by Li Jinyu on a caretaker basis, after a run of bad form saw the club in a relegation battle.[8] The club was relegated at the end of the 2016 Chinese Super League season and on 7 November 2016, brought in Afshin Ghotbi as their new coach for the following season.[9] Fortunately, they remained contenders for promotion in the next few seasons, but despite earning third place in 2017, they failed to win promotion for the next two years.
They were promoted again in 2019 but finished last in the 2020 relegation tournament. They escaped relegation when Super League team Jiangsu F.C. dissolved in 2021. They were renamed as Cangzhou Mighty Lions ahead of the 2021 season when the Chinese FA sought to remove corporation names from team names.
Name history
2011–12: Fujian Smart Hero (福建骏豪)
2013: Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao (石家庄永昌骏豪)
2014: Shijiazhuang Yongchang (石家庄永昌)
2015–2020: Shijiazhuang Ever Bright (石家庄永昌)
2021–: Cangzhou Mighty Lions (沧州雄狮)
Crest history
Fujian Smart Hero logo in 2011 and 2012
Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao logo in 2013
Shijiazhuang Yongchang logo in 2014
Shijiazhuang Ever Bright logo between 2015 and 2020
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
